"In contrast to the Hannafords' relatively conventional approach, the large, bold stone house designed by James W. McLaughlin for Sir Alfred Traber Goshorn (1833-1902) in 1890 represents McLaughlin's distinctive 'take' on the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Like McLaughlin's Sol P. Kineon-John Uri Lloyd, Jr., House, which was built in 1887-88 nearby on Clifton Avenue at Lafayette Avenue, the Goshorn House almost seems to revel in the awkwardness of its monumental geometry. McLaughlin often juxtaposes them without mediation, in contrast to the flowing continuities of Richardson's later works." "Originally, as one approached from the south from downtown, the view of the Goshorn House was dominated by a huge gambrel-roofed profile above a single-story parlor wing. In 1899 an octagonal second-story art gallery, also by McLaughlin, was added over the parlor. A circular staircase at the end of the living room, as shown opposite, rises into octagonal upper vestibule that leads to the gallery. When constructed, the gallery had only skylights, like that at 'Scarlet Oaks,' also in Clifton. On the front of the Goshorn House, beside a turreted oriel that ought to contain the staircase but perversely does not, a handsome glass marquee leads to a porch (its broad openings now glassed in) with a Neo-Classical mosaic-tile floor. The interior has generous spaces but rather understated Colonial Revival panelling and moldings."

description

"In contrast to the Hannafords' relatively conventional approach, the large, bold stone house designed by James W. McLaughlin for Sir Alfred Traber Goshorn (1833-1902) in 1890 represents McLaughlin's distinctive 'take' on the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Like McLaughlin's Sol P. Kineon-John Uri Lloyd, Jr., House, which was built in 1887-88 nearby on Clifton Avenue at Lafayette Avenue, the Goshorn House almost seems to revel in the awkwardness of its monumental geometry. McLaughlin often juxtaposes them without mediation, in contrast to the flowing continuities of Richardson's later works." "Originally, as one approached from the south from downtown, the view of the Goshorn House was dominated by a huge gambrel-roofed profile above a single-story parlor wing. In 1899 an octagonal second-story art gallery, also by McLaughlin, was added over the parlor. A circular staircase at the end of the living room, as shown opposite, rises into octagonal upper vestibule that leads to the gallery. When constructed, the gallery had only skylights, like that at 'Scarlet Oaks,' also in Clifton. On the front of the Goshorn House, beside a turreted oriel that ought to contain the staircase but perversely does not, a handsome glass marquee leads to a porch (its broad openings now glassed in) with a Neo-Classical mosaic-tile floor. The interior has generous spaces but rather understated Colonial Revival panelling and moldings."